1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disk drives that each perform recording and/or playback of an information signal on a disk-shaped recording medium. More particularly, the invention relates to a disk drive and a disk tray, wherein when a disk-shaped recording medium is mounted on the disk tray being carried in the horizontal direction between the inside and outside of an apparatus main body (main body of the disk drive), and the disk tray is retracted into the apparatus main body, then the disk-shaped recording medium is rotatably mounted on an internal turn table.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, optical disks, such as CDs (compact disks) and DVDs (digital versatile disks) have been widely known, and there have been provided disk drives of the type that performs recording and/or playback of an information signal on such an optical disk.
Disk drives include those wherein an optical disk is mounted on a disk tray horizontally ejected into and retracted from a main body of the disk drive (“apparatus main body,” hereafter), whereby the optical disk is automatically set on an internal turn table when the disk tray is retracted. Generally, a disk drive of this type has a disk tray, an apparatus main body (main body of the disk drive), a carrying mechanism, a disk rotation drive mechanism, and an optical pickup mechanism. The disk tray has a storage concave portion wherein an optical disk is stored. The apparatus main body is formed into a substantially rectangular box shape, and has a rectangular opening portion formed in a front face thereof through which the disk tray is ejected. The carrying mechanism carries the optical disk between the inside and outside of the apparatus main body. The disk rotation drive mechanism performs rotational driving of the optical disk stored in a storage concave portion of the disk tray. The optical pickup mechanism performs recording and/or playback of an information signal on the optical disk.
In such the disk drive, when the optical disk is stored inside the storage concave portion of the disk tray ejected outside the apparatus main body from the rectangular opening portion, the disk tray is carried into the apparatus main body through operation of the carrying mechanism. The optical disk, which has been carried into the apparatus main body, is rotatably retained on the turn table of the disk rotation drive mechanism. In addition, the optical disk is rotational driven by a spindle motor at a CLV (constant linear velocity), CAV (constant angular velocity), or a combination thereof. Further, the optical pickup mechanism performs recording and/or playback of the information signal on the optical disk being rotationally driven.
For disk drives operating corresponding to recordable optical disks, there are trends toward the fact that also the speed of optical disk rotation driven by the disk rotation drive mechanism is required to be enhanced in association with requirements for write speed enhancement. For example, in the case of a disk drive performing hyper-speed recording of data on a write-once DVD, when hyper four-fold speed recording is shifted to eight-fold speed recording, the speed of rotation of the DVD by a spindle motor is 9,000 rpm or higher.
In such an event, when the optical disk has a crack, scratch, or the like, a case can take place where in the rotational driving, the optical disk is crashed, and debris of the optical disk is dispersed outside the apparatus main body from the rectangular opening portion. More specifically, during a long-time use of optical disks by a user, cases can take place where, for example, an optical disk is dropped, and/or unreasonable forces exert on an optical disk when being taken out from a disk package. Thereby, a crack or scratch can occur in a peripheral portion of the center hole and the like of the disk. In addition, cases can take place where optical disks on commercial markets include inferior products (disks) not having durability sufficient to withstand high speed rotational driving.
When such a cracked optical disk or defective disk regarded as an inferior product having low durability is rotationally driven at high speed, there can occur a case where the optical disk is cracked to the extent of touching the peripheral wall provided to the storage concave portion of the disk tray, whereby the disk is crashed. In addition, a case can take place where debris of the optical disk caused by crushing thereof receives energy developed by the high speed rotation of the optical disk disperses in the disk drive, and various components provided inside the apparatus main body is damaged. In this case, a case can occur where part of the debris is forced out of a rectangular opening portion provided to the front face of the apparatus main body, consequently causing the user to be harmed. Further, in stages of, for example, manufacture, inspection, and maintenance/repair of the disk drive, components such as a top cover and front panel of the apparatus main body are not mounted. As such, a case can occur where the optical disk is rotationally driven with the disk tray in a bare or uncovered state, whereby crushing of optical disk causes damage on the apparatus main body.
To prevent such dispersion of debris of an optical disk, various disk drives have been proposed. For example, a disk drive has been proposed wherein the peripheral wall provided in the storage concave portion of the disk tray is formed with an increased height, and the rotation cover for covering the rectangular opening portion is additionally provided. According to another disk drive proposed, the sidewall is provided in the vicinity of the optical disk in addition to the peripheral wall of the storage concave portion (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-133964, for example).
However, an increase in the size of the disk tray is involved in either of the proposed disk drives, i.e., one wherein the peripheral wall of the storage concave portion is formed with the increased height, and the other one wherein the rotation cover for covering the rectangular opening portion is additionally provided to the disk tray. The size increase is consequently increases constraints of the design or design process of the apparatus main body. Further, problems still remain unresolved in the configuration formed with the simple countermeasure, wherein without a rotation cover being provided, only the peripheral wall is formed with the increased height, or only the sidewall is formed in the disk tray. In the respective configuration, when a defective disk is rotationally driven at high speed, the disk possibly touches the peripheral wall and/or sidewall to the extent of being crushed, thereby causing fine debris of the disk to disperse from the rectangular opening portion of the apparatus main body.